One of the many hurdles an archer must overcome to hit a target is to have the bow remain level (vertically upright) while aiming. All archers want their arrows to travel such that the arrow hits the center of the target and the verticalness of the bow is critical to obtaining this goal. Indeed, with a misaligned (off-vertical) standard bow, a ¼-inch (approx. 6.5 mm) tilt translates to a 10-inch (approx. 25.4 cm) miss at 40 yards (approx. 36.6 meters), with the extent of the miss increasing dramatically the further down range the arrow travels toward the target.
Nearly all modern bow sights share three features. They will have some type of fiber optic sight pin or pins that can be adjusted up, down, left or right to align the bow, on target, so that when an arrow is shot correctly and the pin is on the center of the target, the arrow travels and hits the center of the target. Various aspects of conventional fiber optic pin sights used in archery and their manufacture are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,171,648 which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Bow sights may also have a bubble level attached somewhere on the sight, most often to the pin guard housing, which surrounds and protects the pins from damage. The bubble level typically will be mounted so that its longitudinal axis is horizontal and at a 90-degree angle to the upright vertical axis of the bow itself. In this manner, an indication by the level of levelness similarly indicates the verticalness/tilt of the bow. If a bow leans to the right, the arrow will travel to the right, if the bow leans to the left, the arrow will travel to the left. The more the archer leans the bow, the further off target the arrow travels.
Once the bow string and arrow are pulled back to a preset draw weight and length set for a particular archer's physicality and dimensions, the archer then starts to visually align the pin of choice on the target. Then, the archer's focus is drawn away from the pin, to the level, once the archer believes that the level is aligned, the archer's attention then, shifts back to the pin, then to the pin on the center of the target, while hoping that the bow remains level. Although the pin and level are near to each other in proximity, the archer has to mentally shift his/her attention back and forth. Some sights even add a second, more defined level, adding even more steps to the aiming process and shifting the archer's focus even more.
What is needed and provided by the present invention are improved verticalness-indicating apparatuses and bow sights that eliminate the need for an archer to shift their attention between the sight's aiming point(s) and its levelness indicator(s), thereby improving the user's accuracy, speed and overall performance.